I understand what you are thinking. As a digital marketing manager, you must keep up-to-date with digital trends, emerging technologies, platforms, and customer needs. You are being asked to load another “best practice” on your plate.
But wait! But wait! There are some additional factors to consider, but they don’t matter in the grand scheme. They will also help people with disabilities. You will soon see digital access become a mindset, not just a catchphrase.
This article, the first in a series, will show you some fundamental practices you can immediately implement to make your digital content more easily accessible. Let’s get started!
What is accessible marketing?
A marketer’s job, at its core, is easy but not easy. A marketer’s job is to increase awareness and interest in a company’s products and services and convince people they are worth their time. Marketers can achieve this goal by using a variety of strategies and tactics.
Communication is the core of the digital market, regardless of the strategies a marketer employs. Marketers must communicate their message to potential customers regardless of their channel or platform.
Accessible marketing requires twofold efforts.
First, It requires that as many people as possible understand your message. Notice how the word “understands” is used in the sentence before? This is because there are many mediums you can use to communicate a message. However, a person with a disability will only be able to understand a portion of your message if they have had a poor experience.
A video without captions, for example, is fine for people with perfect hearing. However, they may need headphones if they are trying to view them in public spaces. Although those with poor or limited hearing may be able to watch the video and get an idea of its content, they might not understand it. It is unlikely that someone with limited or no hearing would be able to interpret the video without captions in the same way as someone who can hear.
Your digital assets must be accessible to people with disabilities. Anyone can understand your website, even if they cannot complete essential tasks. Your site must allow customers to buy products. This is the main objective of your website.
What digital content should marketers be concerned about?
A better question might be: What digital assets should marketers care about, and what should they not worry about? The answer is no.
It doesn’t matter what type of content you put out, whether a video, blog post, infographic, or tweet. All must be accessible.
Accepted Guidelines For Digital Accessibility
You might be asking if the ADA has universal requirements for digital accessibility. There are some caveats to the answer: “kind of” is not an exact answer. We know it’s frustrating!
International Web Standards – W3 & WCAG
Let’s first discuss the World Wide Web Consortium, an international group that oversees web standards. Web standards are guidelines that show how to provide a consistent web experience across all devices and platforms. The W3C created the Web Accessibility Initiative as its standard web mission. It aims to provide information and guidance on ensuring everyone has a similar experience, regardless of their ability.
As a resource for digital content creators, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines were created by W3C in 1999. The W3C published the WCAG 2.1 in 2018, which is now the most current version.
Although these guidelines contain criteria for accessible digital assets (some vaguer than others), they do include criteria. Many digital accessibility guidelines, unlike building codes for people with disabilities, do not result in binary outcomes (e.g., accessible or inaccessible).
Example: Success criterion 2.4.3 ( Order) states that users should navigate sequentially through content in a consistent way and understand the content.
Although this is a perfectly valid criterion, users may find more than one order that makes sense. It is important to think about accessibility and user experience in cases like these. You’ll be able to host an accessible website if your content conforms to the. User testing has been done to verify that most users’ is acceptable.
Accessible Marketing Recommendations
As an introduction to creating accessible content, we will publish a few articles. Please see part 2 of. You’ll be much closer to providing an exceptional experience for everyone if your company’s processes and procedures are aligned with these best practices.